The Bible, UFOs, Aliens, and the Paranormal
Matthew 24:4, 24-25
1 Timothy 4:1
I spoke to a Christian woman last week who told me that her son, who was raised in church, was living with a girl and they weren’t married. She said, He know better, but she didn’t have any church background. Her mom only religion is believing in Alien abductions.
In April 1997 39 devotees to a UFO cult called Heaven’s Gate cult led by Marshall Applewhite, killed themselves believing after their deaths they would join an alien space they said was riding piggy-back on a comet. This event brought to the forefront again just how many people actually believe in UFOs and aliens. Although Heaven’s Gate represents the radical fringe of a global UFO movement, there are millions of less-dedicated, everyday followers who believe in UFOs and alien life. In 1997 one poll suggested 40% of Americans believe aliens have visited our planet. Surveys suggest that more than 20 million Americans believe they’ve seen a UFO in the sky- Other data suggests more than 3 million inhabitants of this planet say they have had a personal encounter with a being from another planet–or with a UFO.(Alien Invaders, Charisma July. Although they have been seen throughout history, their sighting has literally exploded since WW2. So we need a response besides you are stupid or a mental case. How do you fit UFOs and Aliens into your Biblical framework. They aren’t mentioned by name in the Bible. Unfortunately most Christians are confused and have no answer for paranormal activity. I had an elderly woman (not from our church) but from a holiness church tell me she had visits from her dead loved ones to comfort her.
I EXTRATERRESTRIAL ENCOUNTERS ?
Across the globe, UFO sightings are reported almost weekly. Many are published on the Internet with related reports of such things as "crop circles" and cattle mutilations.
Strange ring-like patterns discovered on July 27, 1991, near Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, England, and in 1992 in Durham, North Carolina. There have also been an estimated 10,000 cases of cattle mutilations reported in which the animals had been "exsanguinated," or had their blood removed. Some believe aliens are the cause.
A series of ‘flying saucers’ caused a stir in southern England before being revealed as hoaxes, complete with sound effects from built-in batteries and loudspeakers. (answers in genesis)
Many of the true believers in aliens and UFOs cannot be dismissed simply as oddballs or eccentrics. Sightings have been reported by astronauts and former President Jimmy Carter.
One of them is Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper. In 1951 as a young pilot, he was flying an F-86 jet over Germany when he saw flying-saucerlike objects flying in formation. In 1978 her wrote a letter to the United Nations stating he believed in UFOS.
In June 1965 astronaut Ed White–the first American to walk in space- and astornaut James McDivitt were passing over Hawaii in a Gemini spacecraft when they saw weird-looking metallic objects. Although photos were taken, they were never released.
The United States Government had an offshoot of NASA called SETI (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Shut down in the 1990’s.
Others believe the U.S. Government has withheld proof of extraterrestrial life forms for years from the American People. One such person is former astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the moon during the Apollo 14 space flight 1971.
He rejects the government account of an alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.
The US government, in fact, has a long history of investigating UFOs. Their research originated with what was called Project Blue Book, which-after examining more than 13,000 cases of UFO sightings over 20 years-offically debunked the existence of UFOs.
Later a secret group called MJ-12 (Operation Majestic 12) was created by then president Harry Truman on Sept. 24, 1947, to deal with public hysteria surrounding certain UFO sightings.
Harvard University psychiatry professor John E. Mack recently attracted worldwide attention with his collection of cases of people claiming they were ‘abducted by aliens’.
There was also the release of a film alleging to be of an autopsy on an alien from a crash in New Mexico close to the U.S. Air Force Base at Roswell. The blurry footage, which most have dismissed as an obvious and crude forgery, was nevertheless the main attraction at the 1995 UFO World Congress in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Then of course, there was the ‘alien invasion’ film Independence Day, which grossed more in its opening week than any previous film in history.
A recent poll in Germany revealed that 17% of the population believe in visits by alien craft, while 31% believe there is intelligent life in other galaxies.
How, then, should one understand the UFO phenomena and all the associated ‘hype’? In the German magazine Focus, it was recently stated ‘90% of UFO reports turn out to be humbug, but there is a residual 10% which are not easy to dismiss
II SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIALS
Voyager 1 and 2 send a mistaken message to the heavens
The Bible tells us that man will accept a lie rather than admit to the truth that God created
all things, that man is a sinner and must bow down and accept his Creator as Lord of his life. To avoid the truth, man has ‘changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things’ (Romans 1:23).
What better way to show how man has done this than to look at the two Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 and sent barreling towards
the outer reaches of the solar system. On each ship is a gold-coated phonograph record, offering a message to extraterrestrial civilizations.
This message includes pictures of the ‘evolution of man’ from molecules, via fish, reptiles, ape-like creatures, to humans. It also presents
the ‘evolution of man’ in sound—a series of sounds in an evolutionary progression: music of the spheres, volcanoes, earthquakes,
mud pots, wind, rain, crickets, frogs, birds, hyenas, elephants, chimpanzees, wild dogs, footsteps, heartbeats and laughter. There is also
the sound of fire and speech, of stone tools, a tame dog, Morse code, ships, a train, the F-111 aircraft and so on.
The Voyager craft also offer greetings from representatives of nations around the world. These messages bring greetings from Earth, calls for
help, offers of friendship, pleas for peace and promises that man is thinking about them (the extraterrestrial intelligent beings), calling these
supposed beings out there ‘great ones’.
And just to make sure they were communicating, scientists included a greeting from some whales! In the book Murmurs of Earth: The
Voyager Interstellar Record, by Carl Sagan and others, we read about the ‘whale greeting’: ‘We listened to it [the whale greeting] many
times and always with a feeling of irony that our imagined extraterrestrials of a billion years hence might grasp a message from fellow
earthlings that had been incomprehensible to us.’16
United Nations delegate Wallace R.T. Macaulay of Nigeria made an impassioned plea in his message carried by Voyager: ‘To extraterrestrial
intelligent beings: We are supposed to inhabit this planet alone but we know this is not quite so. In Africa, we want to believe
that we have you and you are all-knowing, and perhaps possess high intelligence and therefore can help us solve the many problems of
our world here.’
Why don’t they listen to the message from God? Psalm 121:2 tells us where to look for solutions: ‘My help comes from the Lord, who
made heaven and earth.’
Man has rejected the heavenly message
Man is crying out for purpose and meaning in life. But he is not listening to God. In fact, he doesn’t want to listen. As we read in
Ephesians 4:18: ‘Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,
because of the blindness of their heart.’ In 2 Peter 3:5, the Apostle tells us that man is ‘willingly ignorant’—he deliberately rejects the
truth about creation.
This great, infinite Intelligence—the Lord God of the Bible—sent His prophets, and
man stoned them. God sent His Son, and man nailed Him to a cross. God gave us His
Word, and man has burned it and its preachers at the stake. Man cries out on one hand
for there to be something more, but then shakes his fist at God. Why? Because man
really wants to make his own god—he doesn’t want to acknowledge that he is in rebellion
against his Creator.
III Eye Witness Accounts
Best selling author Whitley Strieber wrote about hisown abduction by aliens in his books Communion, Transformation, and Breakthrough. However, he experienmented in the occult before his alien encounters.
Linda Cortile is a woman who witnesses say was beamed aboard a spaceship on Nov. 30, 1989. According to their statements, Linda was levitated by a blue light onto a large, glowing, reddish-orange UFO near the Brooklyn Bridge.
Questions
How do we know that reports of alien encounters are true or that extraterrestrial life exists?
Does the Bible say anything about beings visiting Earth?
Are these encounters, and others like them the result of drug use, over-active imaginations or memories that surface during hypnotic treatments?
What should Christians think about UFO accounts?
Actually there are far too many documented accounts of both abductions and UFO sightings to dismiss all of them with simplistic explanations. It is likely that the experiences are real. However, the source of their alien encounters is undoubtedly not extraterrestrial, but demonic.
Experiences -Real experiences don’t mean they are true or Godly. It may not be imagination.
IV UFOs and Aliens Understood From a Biblical Framework
a. Ezekiels Images p131 Angels :Dark and Light -Gary Kinnaman
Ezekiel 1:15-21; 10:11
What in the world was Ezekiel seeing? It was the glory of God, but it is possible that, as a part of the vision, Ezekiel was witnessing what people today might call a UFO.P131 Kinnaman
Even Billy Graham admits that “UFOs are astonishingly angel-like in some of their reported appearances.” (Quoted from Angels God’s secret agents. P14)
In his book on Angels Billy Graham noted that "some Christians, whose views are anchored in a strong commitment to scripture, contend that ... UFOs are angels.. These people point to certain passages in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and the Book of Revelation, and draw parallels to the reports of observers of the alleged UFO appearances....p131 Kinnaman
Gary Kinnaman , Angels Dark and Light, I am fairly convinced that UFO’s are indeed the manifestation of spirit beings–and for the most part, not the good kind...
UFOs seem to defy the laws of gravity and physics, Albrecht and Alexander tell us that “their motions and maneuverings are...enigmatic–they have been known to change their shape suddenly; occasionally they ‘materialize’ as if from nowhere, but more often ‘vanish’ into this air in the midst of a sighting. While in view of both human observers and radar instruments, they have performed unbelievable aerial maneuvers, such as 90 degree turns at speeds of several thousand miles per hour!”
Ezekiel put it this way; “As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went” (Ezekiel 10:11)
Physicist J. Lemairtre, writing in the highly regarded UFO publication Flying Saucer Review, said "We can conclude that it is impossible to interpret UFO phenomenon in terms of material spaceships as we conceive of them, that is, in terms of manufactured and self-propelled machines."...p133 Kinnaman
Another physicist believes that UFOs only appear as matter, but are really just a concentration of energy. All of this simply points to a spiritual basis for UFO sightings, some of which may be good angels of God, like what Ezekiel saw near the Kebar River in Babylon.
Most of the time, I believe (as Gary Kinnaman) UFO sightings are manifestations of angels of darkness. As I looked over Alien pictures on the net for this presentation I had eerie sense of evil. The main reason for this they are manifestation of angels of darkness is that UFO sightings have never, at least to my knowledge, led a person closer to God. In fact, most UFO experiences have just the opposite effect.
b. 1 Timothy 4:1 The Bible warns about doctrines of demons and deceiving spirits in
c. Ephesians 2:2 “Prince and power of the air”
d. 2 Corinthians 11:14 -Satan masquerades as an angel of light, a liar and the Father of Lies.(John 8:44)
e. Revelation 12:9 The huge serpent was thrown down. That ancient snake, named Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was thrown down to earth. Its angels were thrown down with it.
The most Bizarre of UFO sighting are those involving alleged “abductions.” Brian Scott is the most famous. He claims to have met the occupants of UFOs on at least 5 different occasions, in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. He said weird-looking being communicated with him telepathically, without moving their mouths or speaking. The message was a combination of general information about the aliens’ origin and purpose, vague philosophy, and a promise that they would return. Which they did. His accounts of events are blatantly occultic, and never lead people into the presence of God.
Nor can all abduction accounts be summarily dismissed as delusions, dreams or fraud. Ginger Thompson’s case is one of them
Ginger Thompson shows an X-ray of the implant she says was left in her head by aliens. The pea-size object in her brain was discovered by doctors at the Mayo Clinic, she says, who were baffled by its origin. She is matter-of-fact, even a little weary, as she recounts being experimented upon by extraterrestrials.
But then he came across what he calls the real UFO cover-up, which drew him back into the world of sightings and Grays--but with a new mission. With a Christian friend who had also been part of the MUFON network, Jordan discovered the astonishing case of a man who claimed to have halted his abduction experience.
It was the first time Jordan had ever heard such a thing--and it happened when the man called out the name of Jesus. "Nobody had ever said you could escape an abduction. There
was no mention of it in any of the literature," he notes.
Since then, Jordan and his colleague have traced about 100 abduction cases that have been stopped by the name of Jesus.
On the whole, if you were to call up a pastor and say you had been abducted by aliens, 95 percent of them would refer you to a psychiatrist before they would refer you to Jesus," Guy Malone who ministers in Roswell New Mexico.
V The Result of UFO Encounters
Do they bring people into the presence of the Living God as Ezekiels experience did?
How did the spiritual lives of those who encountered aliens change?
The plot, they contend, is illustrated by the views of the likes of Stanton Friedman, a full-time UFO researcher, author and speaker for more than 30 years whose studies have led him to the conclusion that aliens are visiting Earth and the observation that: "It gives you a new sense of perspective about where man fits in the universe."
"The idea is to get our eyes off of God. If what these aliens say is true, then it denies the Creator," he explains. "That’s the bottom line--they are trying to destroy our relationship with the Creator." (Chris Ward)
And, in the meantime, say Ward and his associates, UFOs draw people almost inevitably into New Age beliefs. It is certainly the case at Journeys Beyond, where the merchandise tables selling books about UFOs and alien abductions are mixed among stalls offering aura photography, psychic and tarot readings, past-life studies, etheric handprints, auric renderings and astral-projection lessons.
Her (Ginger Thompson from above) views of God have changed, too. Raised in a Baptist church, she no longer believes in hell.
"It’s where you are," she says. Jesus was "just a man like we are, sent here to show us that we have the same power that He had." God is "not something we can touch. God is pure energy," she adds.
Even more disturbing than the mere communication with aliens is the growing number of women who claim to have been impregnated with alien seed, as well as accounts about sexual activity among angels, aliens, demons, and humans. It is hard to tell if any of these reports have any truth in them at all.
Conclusion: The Delivered
For years Cathy Land was plagued by an unsettling sense of being "visited." When she realized what was happening, she turned to God to end her abduction experiences.
The pieces started to fit together the night they dropped her. For years Cathy Land had been plagued by the sense that something wasn’t quite right. There were periods of unaccounted missing time, mornings when she felt heavy and lethargic despite a full night’s sleep, an unsettling sense of somehow having been visited.
Then she woke up with an alien’s face inches from hers.
"He had dropped me. I could feel his breath on my face. It startled him that I woke up. He had this confused--’That’s not supposed to happen’--look on his face. The second one still had hold of my legs. I rolled over into a fetal position and went right back to sleep."
In the morning she told her son what had happened. Usually the family dismissed her recollections as a joke. This time he told her: "Those were not aliens; they were demons."
"It finally all made sense," she recalls.
Her son’s comment propelled her to the Internet, where she found some Christians who didn’t dismiss her experiences as nonsense. Her faith was enriched and deepened as she discovered that God’s power could free her from her years of torment.
"I stopped being so scared, and I got mad," she says. "I finally understood. These things were trying to get the world’s attention away from God, and how better to do that than make people think they are being invaded from outer space? These are not benevolent little E.T.s come to clean up the environment, fix the hole in the ozone layer. They are not from a distant galaxy. They are raping women, they are murdering animals, they are terrifying children."
An office manager for a medical supply company, and one-time stock-car racer and singer-musician, Land began to read all she could to learn more about what had troubled her for so long. She had been fascinated by UFOs since early childhood, one time reporting a seashore sighting to the police.
"Many times I would have a strange feeling just before going to bed," she says, adding that precise memories were hazy when she awoke. "I would feel like something had happened during the night--but nothing I could put my finger on."
One time her son told of a frightening encounter he’d had with "a tall man." She admits that his account had scared her.
But she continued to devour books and TV shows on alien phenomena. She told family members about her experiences and talked about UFOs with friends, though most laughed her off.
"Sometimes it made me feel like I was losing my mind. Maybe I did dream this all up. But there were too many things over and over and over again," she says.
As she read all the Christian material she could find on the subject after her spiritual awakening, she began to see how she had been so deceived for so long. "Everything started to make sense," she says. "I realized that everything I had read had probably been happening to me all along, and it scared me. Then it made me mad. How dare they mess with me and my children?"
Land’s anger over the years her life was "held" has spurred her to tell her story to others caught in the UFO mesh.
"This is war. It’s the most ingenious hoax there is. It’s a plan to get the world’s attention away from the gospel of Christ, and it’s working."
She says many exploring the UFO world are, as she was, "searching for love."
"That’s what they are looking for, really, in their beliefs about aliens. But there’s only one place they will find unconditional love, and they are looking in the wrong place."
An active part of her local Baptist church in Jacksonville, Florida, Land says that she now has a peace she never knew before. "I didn’t know it for years.," she says. "It was a miserable existence from day to day. Nobody should be victimized like that. If I can save one person from being harmed, then I have to do this for God. It’s my offering to Him.
Sources
Alien Invaders -Charisma Magazine Paul McGuire
Alien Nation & Aliens Among Us - Andy Butcher Charisma & New Man July/Aug 2002
Is there Intelligent Life in Outer Space- Ken Ham
Angels :Dark and Light -Gary Kinnaman
